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Apparently, the Japanese government has decided that radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant can be dumped into the sea. This is reported by various media. The plan meets resistance from fishermen and farmers.
Radioactively contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was destroyed in the 2011 disaster, is apparently going to be discharged into the sea. The government will make the corresponding formal decision shortly, various Japanese media reported. According to this, the discharge of more than a million tons of contaminated water should start the following year at the earliest.
In Fukushima, after a severe earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the worst nuclear disaster occurred since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Because the cooling system failed, there was a core meltdown in three of the six reactors.
Storage capacity depleted
The operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has stored several million tons of contaminated water at the site of the nuclear power plant. Until now, Tepco has been pumping the water from the system and storing it in tanks. It comes from different sources: water that is used to cool the facility and groundwater and rainwater that seeps into the facility on a daily basis.
Pressure on the government to find a solution to the contaminated water has increased as storage capacity will soon run out. Tepco had declared that in 2022 there would be no more storage capacity.
The water is said to still contain tritium
Currently, the water stored in about a thousand tanks is being extensively filtered to reduce its radioactive content. In the end, according to the authorities, it should only contain tritium, which cannot be filtered with existing technologies.
According to experts, tritium is only harmful to humans in very high doses. The International Atomic Energy Agency maintains that properly filtered water can be safely discharged into the ocean without causing environmental problems. At the beginning of the year, a panel of experts proposed to the government that the radioactive water be dumped into the sea.
Resistance of fishermen and farmers
Experts summoned by the Ministry of Industry called this a safe method that would also be used with normal nuclear reactors. However, the plan faces massive opposition from local fishermen and farmers. They fear that consumers may avoid products from the region.
Tepco and the government estimate that it will take about 40 years to repair the damage caused by the nuclear disaster.
